Protective footwear, such as a motorcycle or motocross boot, can have a supple, leather boot feel. Disclosed footwear can have a hinged coupling between a foot-engagement structure and a lower-leg engagement structure to promote anatomically correct flexion in a wearer's ankle. The lower-leg engagement portion can define a ledge having a lowermost face configured to abut and matingly urge against an uppermost face of a ledge of the foot-engagement portion to limit an extent of pivoting of the hinged coupling. The hinged coupling, in some instances, can include a pair of opposed bushings, each defining an internal thread configured to matingly engage a corresponding outer thread on a stud. The stud can retain the lower-leg engagement portion and the foot-engagement portion in a pivotable relationship to each other. The opposed bushings can be keyed to matingly engage either a lateral portion of the foot-engagement portion or a medial portion of the foot-engagement portion.